was seen as a response to a bloody suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv suburb.
The army reportedly managed to capture a local leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, but one other Palestinian man was said to have been killed before the troops left the town again.
This military operation came a day after a teenaged Palestinian bomber slipped through an Israeli security cordon and blew himself up in the crowded Petah Tikvah shopping mall Monday evening, killing two and injuring nearly 50 other people.
TODDLER DEAD
Among the dead were a two-year-old toddler and her 60-year-old grandmother, while several other Israeli’s were believed to be in life danger, reporters said.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was a revenge for Israel’s killing of three of its members last week near the West Bank town of Nablus.
Eye-witnesses quoted by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) news service said the bomber shot a security guard before blowing himself up.
PEACE EFFORTS
"We are talking about children and babies who were sitting with their parents at the cafe near the supermarket," the ICEJ qouted one witness as saying.
United States President George W. Bush has condemned the suicide bombing and pledged to move forward with peace efforts, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns is heading to the region late Tuesday and CIA Director George Tenet is likely to follow at the end of the week, VOA said.
